Simulator drives home risks of distraction

Distracted driving is defined as driver inattention. It can be anything from being lost in thought to the obviously dangerous practice of text messaging while driving.

"It's so unfair!" said one girl.

"You're creating the problems!" said another.

"I'm crashing every time," said a young man.

"S—-!" said one youngster simply, after plowing into the rear end of the simulated car she had been following.

The trainer asked her why she hadn't attempted to swerve away.

All of the youngsters had crashed while using Arbella Insurance's interactive driving program, a simulator developed with UMass Amherst called "Distractology 101."

None of the teenagers and young adults using the simulator — housed Monday morning in a big yellow van parked at Fall River's Hadley Insurit Group — was able to drive safely while text messaging.

And the simulator also presented all kinds of other driving problems the students thought were "unfair," including the trainer distracting the drivers by talking to them.

Perhaps most unnerving was the unforeseen danger on the road that was not the fault of the student.

Some crashed while doing such things as approaching an intersection in which they were blindsided from oncoming traffic, or when another oncoming vehicle failed to proceed through an intersection safely.

Arbella worked with UMass Amherst to develop the simulator in order to better educate young people about the dangers of "distracted driving."

Distracted driving is defined as driver inattention. It can be anything from being lost in thought to the obviously dangerous practice of text messaging while driving.

Text messaging while driving will be illegal in Massachusetts as of Oct. 1, but other types of distracted driving — such as talking and dialing on a cell phone, eating and drinking, fiddling with the radio or even talking to a fellow passenger — won't be.

So Distractology 101 is traveling around the state teaching inexperienced drivers about the real danger of distracted driving.

According to Arbella, under-20 drivers are the highest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal car crashes (16 percent). The 20-29 age group has the second-highest rate, at 12 percent.

So Distractology 101 tries to reach the kids at their own levels, using terms like "textgating" — driving too close to another car because your attention is on something else, and "fishmailing" — swerving or skidding as you try to respond to an e-mail while driving.

"During their first month on the road, novice drivers are six times more likely than drivers with a year's driving experience to be in a fatal crash," said Dr. Donald L. Fish, a UMass professor and nationally recognized expert on distracted driving.

Dan Hicks, a trainer with Arbella, worked with the local kids on Distractology 101 Monday.

When they expressed frustration that they could so easily get into accidents, he gently suggested they be more aware of things like blind intersections and other reckless drivers.

"Just because you do everything right doesn't mean everybody else is," he tells one young woman who'd been driving the simulator cautiously but still got into an accident.

In as small a region as SouthCoast, there have already been two devastating accidents involving distracted driving while texting.

In March of 2008, Craig Bigos, 31, of New Bedford, was charged with motor vehicle homicide after he hit and killed a 13-year old Taunton boy.

Bigos later pleaded guilty to motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. (He had said he was text-messaging a friend, and swerved and hit what he thought was a mailbox.)

In March of this year, 21-year-old Aaron Parsons lost his life after he crashed into a tree while driving at 80 mph.

Police said he had sent and received a text message in the minutes before the crash, and had another unsent text message, created on his phone, the minute before the crash.

But in case you think the average person is unlikely to engage in distracted driving, think again. An informal survey of the 14 people present newsroom Monday afternoon, showed that 13 of 14 had used a cell phone while driving. Several people in the room admitted to sometimes texting while driving.

Cell phone use while driving isn't tested by the simulator because too many people can do it, so it sends the wrong message. But don't kid yourself that there's no danger to it.

A Carnegie-Mellon study found that using a cell phone while driving reduces the brain activity connected with driving by 37 percent.

By the way, the one person in the newsroom who hadn't talked on a cell phone while driving?

He doesn't own a cell phone.

Contact Jack Spillane at jspillane@s-t.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.